Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 28, 2014
by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. (it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 22, 2010
Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. The VC’s $1 million still buys them 25% of your company – it’s you who has diluted to 60% ownership rather than 75%. So your 100% of the company is down to 80% even before VC funding.
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www.inc.com
SEPTEMBER 24, 2011
Sales & Marketing | Wednesdays. SALES & MARKETING. Before Roving Software could receive its first round of financing from professional investors, in early 1999, he had to put all the stock arrangements in writing. Besides the future potential earnings youre forgoing, youre also diluting your own ownership in the company.
Steve Blank
APRIL 10, 2019
In the 20 th century, the best companies IPO’d in 6-8 years from startup (and in the Dot-Com bubble of 1996-1999 that could be as short as 2-3 years.) There are four problems: First, as the company raises more money, the value of your initial stock option grant gets diluted by the new money in.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 27, 2010
I was paid less in salary in 2004 than I was paid at the job I quit in 1999 (a job I had held 8+ years). But in our first year of sales (and those were really shitty years to be selling software) we sold $2.1 I learned how to establish sales targets and how to manage a sales pipeline. I never built Google.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 25, 2010
When I was raising money for my first company we had closed a seed round in 1999 and were working on our A round. We had many term sheets (it was 1999 and we had a pulse) and we were deciding which one to take. But we weren’t optimizing for dilution – we were building a $1 billion+ company and we wanted the runway to succeed.
abovethecrowd.com
APRIL 20, 2016
In 1999, record valuations coexisted with record IPOs and shareholder liquidity. If 1999 was a wet (read liquid) bubble, 2015 was a particularly dry one. Back in 1999, if a company raised $30mm before an IPO, that was considered a large historic raise. It will also minimize future dilution. 2015 was the exact opposite.
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